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welshtrident
Contributor
Contributor

VMK_NO_MEMORY Error on startup.

Hi,

I've setup a Ubuntu virtual machine on a vSphere server with

  • 1GB RAM
  • 1 CPU
  • 250GB hard disk

However, when I try to start up the VM I get a "Could not start VMX: msg.vmk.status.VMK_NO_MEMORY" error.

This is the error stack: Heap globalCartel-1 already at its maximum size of 7869288. Cannot expand. Could not start VMX: msg.vmk.status.VMK_NO_MEMORY.

However the server has 32GB of RAM with only 12GB actually in use.

On another ESXI server I've done exactly the same (with the server being identical to the one with the error) and it's working fine.

I'd appreciate any help!

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4 Replies
Ajsharma
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Are you using HP server ? If Yes, This issue is caused by a memory leak in the driver which fills the SWAP memory of the ESXi host, making it unable to response to any requests at all

- HP-AMS Driver causes ESXi memory leak - Educational Materials for Technicians, Created by Technician...

- vMotion all the VMs out the ESXi host to another

- Rebooted the host

- Move the VM's back to the original host

- Try to power-on the VM

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mark_chuman
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I disagree that the metrics to watch are heap used or even swap.  I'm trying to pin down the metric to watch for this (ie, estimating when a host may hit the issue) and I have a host with the issue and there is plenty of heap and swap (not even used) left, so those metrics (from perf data in the client) are not the ones to watch for complete consumption to identify the issue.

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Mojo_78
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all,

I have the same problem on vSphere 5.5.

Around the web i have found this link:

http://www.virten.net/2014/12/esxi-issues-caused-by-hp-ams-module/

On our blade we are re-installing the AMS module (updating to 10.0.1 version).

for now it works

hope it helps

Giovanni

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